Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a valve arrangement.
Background of the Invention
Various valve arrangements are known from prior art for the measured feeding of a gaseous fuel into internal combustion engines comprising a plurality of electromagnetically operable control valves of an individual cross-section, with the control valves being embodied as seat valves, it being possible to allocate the valve arrangement to a combustion chamber, and the valve arrangements showing a nominal cross-section in order to provide a predetermined volume flow. Such valve arrangements are disclosed for example in WO 2007/036 382 A1 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,545,345 or EP 1 888 956 B1.
In prior art, for so-called large gas engines, i.e. particularly for gas engines with a power of preferably at least 500 kW, plate valves are used as so-called injection valves for the gaseous fuel.
Such plate valves comprise a gas inlet and a gas outlet, with a separating plate with multiple perforations being arranged between the inlet and the outlet as well as a plate-shaped sealing element adjusted thereto for closing the apertures in the separating plate. The plate valve designed in this fashion can be operated via an electromagnetic drive, so that the sealing element is either lifted off the separating plate and thus releases the passages or rests thereon and closes the passages in a sealing fashion. This design is selected in prior art, because previously only this way the large nominal cross-sections required, showing up to 1,500 mm2, could be achieved.
The plate valves known from prior art show various disadvantages, which are briefly described in the following.
On the one hand, such plate valves require a highly precise positioning of the sealing element, because only in an absolutely parallel alignment of the sealing element and the separating plate an even opening of the valve is ensured and sufficient sealing behavior can be achieved with tolerable leakage.
Furthermore, it is considered disadvantageous that the plate valves known from prior art require a relatively large constructive space, because the minimally required base area is determined by the size of the separating and/or sealing plate used. Due to their design, such plate valves are relatively sensitive to particles introduced via the gas flow, because such particles can precipitate in the proximity of the separating plate and thus overall compromise the function of the plate valve. Any redundancy is not given.
The objective of the present invention is to provide a valve arrangement, which is free of the disadvantages known from prior art, shows increased reliability, and can be used in a more flexible fashion. This objective is attained in a valve arrangement showing the features of claim 1. Advantageous further developments are disclosed in the dependent claims.